Marian's Blog

Franklin Raines: Ex-Fannie Mae Head Exits Like A Fat Rat

Filed under 'Black leader$ who at the very least can easily afford to start a University'... When I saw this I knew I had to blog it. All these years the handlers gave us this guy as Mr. Mild-mannered. I do realise that occasionally I have to claim - or at least acknowledge - persons like this, just like the regular Black folks. This guy's retirement package reminds me of some African so-called "leaders". Franklin RAINE$ - I mean Raines - headed of "Fannie Mae" a well-known US government-run agency (the Federal National Mortgage Association) that's supposed to be about helping less advantaged Americans get financing to buy their own home.  Now Franklin has quit, apparently a step ahead of being asked to leave. Instead he walks away with over 1oo.000 dollars a month for the rest of his life. How do you swing that?? I'd call that public service; wouldn't you? Self serving, publicly. Meanwhile most folks are just trying to eat, educate their kids if they've got 'em & keep a roof over their heads; not to mention those of us doing this as Women heads of Families.

From the Associated Press: Ex-Fannie Mae chief to get $114K a month, by Laurie Kellman, Associated Press Writer.

WASHINGTON -- Franklin Raines, who was forced out as Fannie Mae's chief executive after five years, is slated to receive a monthly pension of more than $114,000 for life, according to documents the mortgage lending giant filed Monday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The documents also reveal that Raines has deferred compensation of $8.7 million to be paid out through 2020 and owns more than $5.5 million in Fannie Mae's stock.

Federal regulators have asked Fannie Mae to hold off paying out any compensation to Raines until they have time to investigate the package, and whether it was appropriate for the federally chartered lender to let Raines retire early rather than be dismissed.

An additional point of contention is Raines' retirement date. According to the filing, "Mr. Raines has asserted" to Fannie Mae that his retirement is effective June 22 - enabling him to receive an additional $600,000 in salary. That scenario also would add $100,000 to Raines' post-retirement monthly payment. In the filing, Fannie Mae did not agree to those terms.

Either way, Raines is slated to take home more than $1.3 million annually, plus benefits such as life and health insurance... read the rest here

SOS from Quake Zone: Please Send Help

I just heard first news report that death toll in this natural disaster may rise to 40.000.

I'm still waiting for word from friends in Somalia. At least a hundred fishermen have been declared dead there. The sad thing in Somalia is so many of the men who'd rejected the guns and war and fighting had turned to fishing to earn a living for their families. Now this has taken so many of them away.  Kenbe fem pep somaliyen. I know it's kreyol - but my meaning is the same.

Friends in UK have forwarded me this plea from colleague Nimalka, on the ground in Sri Lanka. She explains her group's emergency relief activities, including details of a Colombo bank account where anyone willing can send urgent disaster assistance via the international NGO IMADR's presence in Colombo, Sri Lanka. She also includes details for anyone in Sri Lanka who can bring assistance in person.  IMADR is the International Movement against All Forms of Discrimination and Racism.

December 27  - "... I would like you to pass this message urgently.  We need help material and cash to take care of the emergency relief required after the tidal wave devastations in Sri Lanka. I am hoping to cover Hambathota, Trinchomalee and Jaffna. This does not mean we are neglecting Batticaloa and other areas. But the devastation [is] too much that we cannot cope with the situation.

I have just come back from few camps operating in and around Colombo to take care of the displaced from Moratuwa and Modera areas.

Some supplies like medicines, pillows and mats were provided as IMADR intervened immediately with some help for me.

Those in Sri Lanka can bring in the stuff to our office at:

19 1/1 Siri Damma Mawatha - Colombo 10
Sri Lanka ( near Punchi-Borella Junction)
Tel:  2672586 /5365100

Cash etc could be sent to:
IMADR - Standard Chartered Bank
a/c 111 421 7801
FORT - COLOMBO, Sri Lanka

Your contributions would be acknowledged and receipts issued and reports sent about our interventions.

Those who wish to join me in Sri Lanka can contact me. We are off to Hambanthota by 8.00am on 29th December and hope to be back on the same day or day after.

Another visit to Trincho will take place next week.

Tsunamis Claim over 20.000 Lives So. Asia to E. Africa; Toll Still Rising

At least 100 Fishermen Lost in Somalia

"Death toll from Asian quake tops 23 300 "

Agence France Press AFP

http://iafrica.com/news/worldnews/400727.htm
Posted Mon, 27 Dec 2004

The death toll in from an earthquake off Indonesia and tidal waves that it unleashed passed 23 300 on Monday with officials in nine countries reporting deaths.

The toll soared as the military and Tamil rebels in Sri Lanka reported that nearly 11 000 people, including 70 foreigners, had been killed in Sunday's disaster.

Almost 6600 people were reported killed in southern India with more victims expected, officials said. Among them were some 3000 in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, close to the epicentre of the quake, and 2790 in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, according to police.

In Indonesia, more than 4725 people were killed as the country took the full force of the huge earthquake and tidal waves that swallowed entire coastal villages.

More than 860 people were killed and at least 7300 injured by tidal waves in southern Thailand, including foreign tourists at famous seaside resorts, the interior ministry said. Some 1200 are missing.

In Malaysia 51 people, including many elderly and children, were killed, officials said.

At least two British holidaymakers and 41 others were killed while another 63 were missing in the tourist paradise of the Maldives, officials said.

At least 56 people were killed in Myanmar [Burma] and the toll was expected to rise substantially.

In Bangladesh a father and child were killed after a tourist boat capsized from large waves, local officials said.

Fatalities also occurred on the east coast of Africa, with 100 fishermen declared dead in Somalia.

The US Geological Survey said the earthquake registered west of the Indonesian island of Sumatra measured 9.0 on the Richter scale.

Death toll:
Sri Lanka: 10 897
India: 6597
Indonesia: 4725
Thailand: 866
Malaysia: 51
Maldives: 43
Myanmar: 56
Bangladesh: 2
Somalia 100
Total: 23 337

AFP

Please Donate Now: Earthquake Emergency

Donate here to International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies - You may designate where you want your donations to go.

ReliefWeb information on the Asia earthquake and tsunamis.

"Sea Surges Reach East African Coast", BBC 26 Dec 2004.

Waverly Person: A Black American Explains Earthquakes to the World

Yesterday on BBC tv (Britain) I heard Waverly Person of the USGS interviewed by phone. He was explaining this horrific, history making earthquake and as I heard the voice I realised... he's Black American. So I looked him up, virtually. Here's Mr. Person's bio on The HistoryMakers, an outstanding website about Black Americans & that part of U.S. history and society so often missing from widespread, ethnically cleansed, accounts of 'who' Americans really are and what we're about. I'm very proud of Black American people, who we are, what we share with other peoples, and what we've managed to overcome. There's still more to do.

"Geophysicist and seismologist Waverly J. Person was born on May 1, 1927, in Blackenridge, Virginia, to Bessie Butts and Santee Person, a farmer. He now serves as the director of the U.S. Geological Survey's National Earthquake Information Center, the first African American to do so.

After completing his B.S. at St. Paul's College in Lawrenceville, Virginia, in 1949, Person joined the U.S. Army. When he was honorably discharged in 1952, Person received Good Conduct and Asian Pacific medals. Person married Sarah Walker in 1954 and relocated to Washington, D.C., where he performed a series of odd jobs. In 1962, he obtained a position with the National Earthquake Information Center, which monitors tremors worldwide, locates earthquakes and dispatches emergency crews. Person was intrigued by the readings on the rolls he was assigned to maintain, and began to study the field. He continued to work as a technician while simultaneously studying at American University and George Washington University until 1973. Upon earning the qualifications of a geophysicist, he transferred to Colorado. In 1977, Person was named director of the Colorado National Earthquake Information Center and is often sought out by national and international media as an earthquake spokesperson. [cont'd]

After any Earthquake Tsunami may Follow - US Weather Service

In 1958 at Lituya Bay, Alaska a tsunami produced a 1722 foot wave - 525 metres. This sounds like special effects from a movie. But it's not.

From The physics of tsunamis: "The phenomenon we call a tsunami (soo-NAH-mee) is a series of waves of extremely long wave length and long period generated in a body of water by an impulsive disturbance that displaces the water. Tsunamis are primarily associated with earthquakes in oceanic and coastal regions. Landslides, volcanic eruptions, nuclear explosions, and even impacts of objects from outer space (such as meteorites, asteroids, and comets) can also generate tsunamis.

"As the tsunami crosses the deep ocean, its length from crest to crest may be a hundred miles or more, and its height from crest to trough will only be a few feet or less. They can not be felt aboard ships nor can they be seen from the air in the open ocean. In the deepest oceans, the waves will reach speeds exceeding 600 miles per hour (970 km/hr). When the tsunami enters the shoaling water of coastlines in its path, the velocity of its waves diminishes and the wave height increases. It is in these shallow waters that a large tsunami can crest to heights exceeding 100 feet (30 m) and strike with devastating force. [Remember the 1722 foot high tsunami wave?]

... "Tsunami is a Japanese word represented by two characters: "tsu" and "nami". The character "tsu" means harbor, while the character "nami" means wave. "

"... Earthquakes generate tsunamis when the sea floor abruptly deforms and displaces the overlying water from its equilibrium position. Waves are formed as the displaced water mass, which acts under the influence of gravity, attempts to regain its equilibrium. The main factor which determines the initial size of a tsunami is the amount of vertical sea floor deformation. [In this case part of the sea floor cracked & raised about 10 metres, which equals 32.81 feet.] This is controlled by the earthquake's magnitude, depth, fault characteristics and coincident slumping of sediments or secondary faulting. Other features which influence the size of a tsunami along the coast are the shoreline and bathymetric configuration, the velocity of the sea floor deformation, the water depth near the earthquake source, and the efficiency which energy is transferred from the earth's crust to the water column.  A tsunami can be generated by ANY disturbance that displaces a large water mass from its equilibrium position. ..." Continued at the U.S. National Weather Service's West Coast & Alaska Tsunami Warning Center.

Tsunamis hit East Africa from 4000 Miles Away in Asia

Somalia, Kenya, Seychelles, Zanzibar...

ASIAN TSUNAMIS SURGE AGAINST EAST AFRICAN COAST

Dec 26, 2004 — By C. Bryson Hull

NAIROBI, Kenya (Reuters) - Powerful tsunamis that roared across southern Asia into the Indian Ocean Sunday smashed fishing boats and flooded low-lying areas along the east African coast, 3,728 miles to the west.

At least one person was killed and others feared missing on Kenya's coast, where thousands of tourists are visiting for the Christmas holidays. The surge of water also destroyed dozens of boats and forced authorities to close the beaches, police said. The biggest earthquake in 40 years hit southern Asia and triggered a massive wall of water that raced across the Indian Ocean, bringing devastation and death to Sri Lanka, India, Thailand and Indonesia. Nearly 8,000 were believed killed.

In countries stretching from the Horn of Africa, down to Tanzania and out into the Indian Ocean, lowland flooding and irregularly fast tidal changes were reported. Tourists and residents were told to stay away from the beaches.

In the Kenyan resort town of Malindi, at least one swimmer died and three others were believed drowned, District Commissioner Mobeya Mogaka said. It was not immediately clear whether the swimmer was Kenyan or a foreign visitor.

Dozens of fishing boats were smashed when the tidal surge struck Malindi, Mogaka said.

Earlier, resorts closed their beaches because of the unusual tidal movements.

"We have had four high tides and four low tides in the last six hours," a spokesman for the Turtle Bay resort in Malindi told Reuters.

FISH ON RUNWAY

On the semi-autonomous Tanzanian island archipelago of Zanzibar, guests at two beach hotels were moved to hotels further inland, officials said.

In the Seychelles, at least nine people were reported missing after a 2-meter (6-foot) surge flooded low roads and knocked out power in hundreds of homes. At the airport, fire brigades were forced to wash dozens of fish off of the runway each time high tides sent water crashing onto the airfield.

The government declared Monday a public holiday to allow for a cleanup.

In Somalia, strong waves and winds capsized boats and kept fishermen in port.

"I do not know what to expect from the ocean," said a Somali fisherman in the coastal town of Adale, 35 miles north of Mogadishu.

Mauritius seemed largely untouched by the post-quake surge, although minor flooding struck one of the outlying islands in the archipelago, Rodrigues. On Madagascar and the Comoros Islands, residents had seen no ill effects.

Global Quake Map: 26 Dec 2004

This map from US govt National Earthquake Info Center shows quake activity around the world, from the great quake in S/SE Asia to smaller quakes from Alaska to Hawaii, to Cayman Islands in the Caribbean and even one in the eastern Mediterranean Turkey/Greece region. Colored dots show quake depth below sea level measured in kilometres. This is separate from measuring accompanying tsunamis, or tidal waves. UTC = coordinated universal time.

Sri Lanka Declares State of Emergency; Entire region Hit by Quakes & Tidal Waves

This USGS map shows Main 8.9 earthquake off Western Sumatra; quakes have been followed by multiple, huge tidalwaves (tsunamis).

1000s die in Asia; Most powerful Earthquake in 50 years

Have there actually been 18 earthquakes? See note on this map. Orange blocks show epicenter of area hit by 8.9 underwater earthquake, yellow blocks seem to show other areas hit. Authorities call this world's most powerful earthquake in 50 years.